The Anniversary is Upon Us!

Captain's Blog Stardate 90680.5

STO is three years old! How many people out there played it during Beta or started playing around the release date? I've said this many times in my blog, I've been playing since the game was released. One of my fondest memories comes from around that time. After playing through the tutorial you had to talk to Admiral Quinn and then Sulu. The Admiral's office looked completely different. As a matter of fact, it is the same office used in Starbase 39. Sulu was in the Admiral's office, but near the window. No one could ever find him. In zone chat as well as on the forums someone would ask every minute "Where's Sulu".

In all seriousness, that is one of the reasons why I started the STO Academy. I wanted it to be a place where people could easily find answers to common questions about STO. Although at the time the site was known as STO Fan. Towards the end of the year I signed up with a host and changed the site to STO Academy.

The STFs are another of my favorite memories. Not many people played them when they first came out because it was annoying to get a team plus the missions were much longer. Originally the STFs were combined, for example Infected was one mission with both space and ground. This made it much longer to play which probably attributed to why no one wanted to play it. I do remember playing only Infected and (as always) the last room was really annoying. I really never got into the STFs until they split them into 6 separate missions and put them into the PvE queue.

When ship interiors first came out I (among other people) were excited. Everyone had been asking for it and Cryptic finally gave it to us. So I logged into the game, clicked the option to visit my bridge, walked over to the turbolift and went straight to Engineering. I thought about how amazing this was. I walked around, savoring every inch of this virtual ship. Hey look! I have my own quarters, that's so cool. Then I was done I thought "I'm never going to come back here again, there's nothing to do". To be honest that hasn't changed much. Some ship interiors are useful and at least now we have access to our account banks on our bridge.

I think I have time for just one more memory. Cryptic revamped a few of the more popular mission such Stranded in Space (the first mission after the tutorial). I really enjoyed these revamps because it felt more like a story was being told instead of just playing through a mission. I hoped, and still hope, that Cryptic revamps the rest of the episodes in this game.

One more thing before I end this blog. February is a big month for me. Not only is it the anniversary of STO (which I always look forward to) but it is also the anniversary of me playing this game as well as the STO Academy's anniversary. I get to celebrate three things with this game that I really love. I'm looking forward to that 4 year anniversary!

So let's hear your favorite memories since you've started playing. I bet some of you will mention things that I didn't even think of.

Written by Attilio on January 28, 2013 at 12:01 am

Comments

Victor(Guest) said...January 28, 2013 at 01:05 am

My favorite memory was first getting a galaxy class cruiser, admiring the size of it. Also brought back memories of TNG

When the STF's were one larger mission (as described above), I teamed up with 4 other KDF players. We ran through Infected, Cure, and Khitomer Accord in 2 hours 45 minutes. If you remember those missions, that was quite an achievement. Cure was hardest IMO. No turrets like now, but the Borg spawned like flies around the transformers. Best of all was the Borg Science Kit at the end. I just passed 2 years on STO in December and look forward to the anniversary.

I played STO at launch, took a break, and have been playing steadily since F2P over a year ago.
I thought the ESD station that they started with certainly was a more futuristic design, but I like the more 'canon' spacedock.
(We have a neat forum topic with pics from launch.)
http://forum.stoacademy.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=487

Also, another thing I remember, didn't the blue lines on the space astro navigation map actually do something in the past? Was it faster if you followed the blue lines? I can't remember....

While Cryptic could communicate things better, especially when they do major upgrades, like the forum changes, I appreciate the time they take to communicate to the Star Trek fans, as there are many passionate, and opinionated, players of this game.
While I'm not a huge fan of the lockboxes, I understand the role they fill, and I think STO does a much better job balancing the F2Play system then other games that limit what content you can play.

I just started on Jan. 31st without knowing about the 3 year anniversary till login. STO put a log of ADs via internet, that's how I found out about an online MMO Star Trek game?! I am a huge fan and playing brings back memories and fills more arcs in the storyline of the TV series. Things that I noticed that weren't there; DS9, you can't sit on the 2nd floor ledges, no warm hole view from the Promenade, "The best seat in the house." No Kardasian tailor behind the counter, and shouldn't it be "Halo Dabo Girl" in a kinky outfit? Other than the little details from obsessively watching the shows, I like the who MMO and so glad there is one out there that suits my interest than WOW, which are primitive primates in a barbarian world. Sci-fi futuristic space life! That's the way I like it, I'm shocked I never new it was going on for 3 full years already and came out free last year! I've seen geek friends play a primitive variant of a plant seeking exploration. Then when I saw Mass Effect 2 going planet to planet searching for planetary anomalies was right up my ally! I complete unaware and missed out! Especially since I'm just starting and free Q stuff is for people level 6+. Have fun! -ufstampa